Vincent Van Gogh, Artist & Wise Madman - Quotes & Comments
Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890) is one of the most remarkable artists of European art history. Poor and unhappy, he never sold a single painting; today his paintings belong to the most valuable ones, and are sold for millions. His difficult life, including his madness, made him grow considerable wisdom, which is reflected in many quotes from him. Here I want to focus on that, rather than his art. Let's jump right into it. All quotes are from van Gogh, unless otherwise stated.
“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”
I love this quote, it reflects my own opinion, and it is well, almost poetically expressed. You must step out of the mainstream flow to be able to reach anything of quality, to gain knowledge and experience, to reach personal growth. Or, it is as Frank Zappa said:
“Without deviation, progress is not possible.”
This leads us to the next van Gogh quote:
“I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.”
In order to step away from what van Gogh calls “normality, it is necessary not to care about what others say. All those words by “others”, are intended to keep people within the boundaries of normality.
“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”
Learning by doing. Grow by learning new things. Don't fear trying something new, something you have never done before.
“If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
Be persistent. You can do anything, if you're just persistently working on it.
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
Attempting something and sometimes (often) failing, is the natural way to personal growth. Failures are there for us to learn from, as much as successes are. If we never attempt anything we stagnates completely.
“Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.”
Van Gogh acknowledges the importance of mistakes...
“One must work and dare if one really wants to live.”
He also realises that fear is a formidable enemy of growth.
It reverberates the words of Danish philosopher Søren Kirkegaard:
“To dare, is to lose one's foothold for a moment.
Not to dare, is to lose oneself.”
Van Gogh also expressed it like this:
“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”
He also understood The Power Of Graduality,as we can see from this quote:
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
He went very far in that view.
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed.”
Working consistently and persistently for something in small consecutive steps – that's how great things are achieved. But don't lose your determination:
“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”
Van Gogh did what he was happy with, despite that his contemporaries saw him as a madman. And he did it well, as posterity proved. He never saw his own success, but I'm sure he knew that he did paint well, exactly because he did it with love and passion. He said:
“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.”
That's how he saw his art, a spiritual calling.
He also said:
“Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.”
Did Van Gogh practise what he preached?
Both yes and no. In his life and his work he practised it, but ultimately he failed to do so when he committed suicide in 1890, 37 years old. He died two days after having shot himself in the chest. Suicide is the absolute “giving up” and failure - the failure to live, the very opposite to the persistence he advocated for.
Perhaps he was a madman, but he was also a genius. Today he is generally recognised as one of the greatest of Western art.
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(Lead image by David Mark/Pixabay, CC0/Public Domain.)
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Until now, it makes me sad everytime I think about people committing suicide. Especially to Vincent Van Gogh he is a very talented person but I guess the madness eats him alive. :(